


A Clean Sleep

by AquaTheLita



Series: Diabolik Brothers [1]
Category: Diabolik Lovers
Genre: Brothers, Gen, Light Angst, Reiji just wants to clean, Shuu just wants to sleep, brotherly salt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 16:54:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15778191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AquaTheLita/pseuds/AquaTheLita
Summary: Reiji just wants to clean. Shuu just wants to sleep. Unfortunately for both brothers, the other always seems to get in the way. They've never seen eye-to-eye before, and they likely never will. Tonight's interaction--like most of their interactions with each other--contains nothing but salt, bitterness, annoyance, and unwelcome memories of the past.Part of my Diabolik Brothers fic series (because this site doesn't have nearly enough non-romantic non-OC DL fics)





	A Clean Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> This was written about a year ago. I'm posting it here since I now have an AO3 account. Also this site seriously needs more DL fics that don't involve romance, sex, or OCs. Hope you guys enjoy the brotherly salt.

It was a slow and relatively still and quiet evening in the Sakamaki household. Everyone was off doing their own thing. There was nothing of importance to do besides clean, which is exactly what the second eldest Sakamaki decided to do to occupy his time until he had to prepare the next meal of the day. As he usually did, he started off by going around dusting things. He would then sweep the floors, then vacuum all of the carpets, then clean the windows. He would mop if necessary. He started at the closet where all the cleaning supplies were kept, then worked his way over to the living room with the duster. 

The moment Reiji entered the living room, he sensed an unwanted presence. His nose wrinkled up in disgust, his lips twitching into a deep frown of distaste. His light red eyes narrowed in contempt, becoming cold as they scanned the room. They quickly fell upon the person they were searching for.

Shuu was lying on his back in the middle of the living room. His feet were away from the entrance Reiji had come through. One of his arms was at his side, and the other one was laying across his stomach. 

Reiji’s eyes narrowed further--a quiet hatred within them--as he approached the eldest Sakamaki (not that he ever acted like the eldest), arms crossed and duster in his gloved hand. When he was a certain distance away he could better see Shuu’s eyes and ears; his eyes were closed and of course he had those hell-be-damned earbuds in his ears. 

“Please tell me you are not sleeping in the middle of the floor. Again.”

There was no response from Shuu. He remained completely still and silent.

Reiji’s eyes narrowed even further, almost completely closed. His lips pursed into a scowl. “I know you can hear me, you deadbeat,” he said, a bit louder this time.

Shuu still did not respond. It was unclear whether Shuu was actually asleep or if he was simply ignoring Reiji. 

Not caring about which it was, Reiji stuck out his foot and nudged Shuu’s head to the side. “Wake up,” he ordered, louder than before. He drew his foot back and glared at Shuu, expecting a response.

This time, Shuu let out a quiet groan and opened one of his lazy blue eyes. The eye stared tiredly up at Reiji. “Must you always disturb my sleep?”

“You are laying in the middle of the living room floor,” Reiji replied coldly. “You are the one being a disturbance.”

“By simply sleeping?”

“In the middle of the floor.”

The eye slid closed. “So wha?” he murmured, his voice trailing off into silence; he hadn’t even finished the word “what.”

Reiji nudged Shuu’s head again with his foot. “Don’t ignore me, you good-for-nothing laze.”

Shuu sighed and opened his eye again, wider than before. “What do you want from me?”

“I want you to move.”

“Why?”

“I am trying to clean.”

“Go around me. By the time you finish I’ll probably have moved. Maybe.” The eye closed yet again. 

Reiji gritted his teeth. What he hated more than Shuu sleeping wherever he pleased was Shuu getting in the way of his cleaning. This time he kicked the top of Shuu’s head, eliciting a quiet grunt from the lazy blonde. “Don’t you dare go back to sleep. You need to move. You have your own bed. There is no need for you to sleep in the middle of the floor.”

Shuu frowned ever so slightly. “You only just started, right? Then you don’t need me to move just yet. I know your routine. You won’t need to clean the carpet yet until after you’ve dusted and swept. So I’m not in your way yet.”

“Tch.” Shuu was right. But that didn’t mean that Reiji was simply going to let this go. “I had better not still find you in here when I come back,” he said, before turning away and walking out of the room. 

Some time later Reiji had finished dusting and sweeping the halls and open areas of first floor. He’d saved the living room for last to avoid even being in the presence of his older brother. “You’d better not be in here by the time I come back,” he said as he left to get the vacuum cleaner. 

Shuu, of course, did not respond, nor show any sign of having heard him. 

Reiji made quick work of vacuuming the carpets on the first floor. He once again saved the living room for last. He hoped that Shuu was in fact gone by the time he went there. 

Reiji walked into the living room. 

Shuu was still there. 

Reiji gripped the handle of the vacuum cleaner in annoyance, nearly crushing it in his momentary fit of rage. He then relaxed himself and calmly went over to an outlet to plug the vacuum in. Not giving a damn about Shuu being there, he turned it on and started vacuuming the central carpet of the living room. He did his best to ignore the vampire lounging in the middle of the floor, and simply went around the edges, working his way towards the center. 

Halfway around the outside, he couldn’t help but glance at his ‘sleeping’ brother (who surely couldn’t be sleeping even through the noise of the vacuum cleaner). His eyebrows were furrowed, his lips forming a deep discomforted frown. The noise was bothering him. Reiji smirked, a look of satisfaction entering his red eyes. 

The look of satisfaction slowly faded away as he continued his way around the spiral, and Shuu remained where he was laying. 

_He’s ignoring the noise and remaining where he lays? Has he really grown so lazy that he will endure this noise?_  Reiji paused in his progression and pushed his glasses up. _Well, let’s see how much he’ll tolerate it when it’s right next to him._

Reiji and his noisy vacuum cleaner moved closer to the calm and quiet deadbeat in the center of the carpet. 

The look of discomfort on Shuu’s face only grew as the vacuum neared him. Then all of a sudden, when it was right next to him, the arm at his side shot out in front of the vacuum cleaner. 

Reiji frowned deeply and turned of the vacuum so he could speak without having to shout over it. “What are you doing?” he asked Shuu, glaring coldly.

Shuu opened both eyes and glared coldly back. “You're too loud.”

“Then _leave_ ,” Reiji replied.

“I don't feel like it.”

“That isn’t my problem. Get up.”

“No. I’m tired.”   


“Then get un-tired.”   


The coldness faded from Shuu’s eyes, replaced with their usual weariness. “Easier said than done.”

“Again, that isn’t my problem.”

Shuu drew his arm back, letting it rest at his side once more. “Hm. Maybe you should make me some of that magic tea of yours to wake me up?”   


Reiji scoffed, letting go of the vacuum and crossing his arms. “Why would I waste my precious time doing something so hospitable for someone so useless and lazy?”

“That human does nothing but run around and give us blood, and you give them tea sometimes.”

“It’s more than you ever do.”

“Just because I’m not as physically active as the rest of you does not mean that I do nothing at all. I do more for this family than the others do.”

“But nowhere near as much as I do.”

“Because you’re a workaholic, and I am not.”

“And that is exactly the problem.” Reiji stepped around the vacuum cleaner and walked to Shuu’s side. He crossed his arms and glared down at Shuu, disdain in his ruby red eyes while they were locked upon Shuu’s listless sapphire blue ones. “You don’t take on the responsibilities you should. You’re so damn spoiled. You lay around doing absolutely nothing, leaving me to do everything.”

“Hm. Sounds like someone’s salty.” The corner of his lips turned up in a slight bemused smirk. This was nothing new; he’d heard this rant countless times before.

Reiji raised his voice, which quickly filled with abhorrence. “It’s all your fault. If only you’d done your duty, I wouldn’t have to pick up so much of your slack.”

“Then why do you?” Shuu asked him calmly. “Why stay here? You could leave whenever you want, honestly. Go into hiding. Start a family on your own. You don’t need us.”

“I stay because unlike you I have my sights on the throne. I am determined to prove my worth. You...you have no worth to prove.”

The scorn in Reiji’s eyes was so hot it almost scared Shuu. Almost. If looks could kill, surely Shuu would be on fire by now. The thought of the metaphor alone made him shiver, but he shook off his phobic discomfort by reacting amusedly to Reiji’s overplayed rant. He forced his smirk to widen. “Wow. So angry and spiteful. It’s almost like you hate me.” There was a hint of sass in his placid voice. 

Reiji gritted his teeth and he flinched at Shuu’s mocking tone and expression. “If it wouldn’t create such a mess, I would just kill you where you laid,” he growled, his voice oozing with animosity. 

“Hm.” Shuu’s lazy eyes slid closed again, seeming to be unfazed by the death threat. “Then roll me onto a tarp or something and kill me on top of that.”

Reiji’s eyes narrowed at the elder vampire. “Not when you’re asking for it. I won’t give you the satisfaction of the death you know you deserve. I’ll just let you live so you can suffer for your sins.”

One of his eyes slowly opened again, a look of slight confusion in it. “Sins? What sins have I committed?”

“You know what you did,” Reiji responded, a look of contempt on his face. 

Shuu did know what he did. His other eye opened. He frowned gently, trying to keep the guilt off his face, because he knew it would only please Reiji to see. “And I suppose that caring for a human is a sin?”

Reiji smirked nonetheless. He knew his words were starting to get to Shuu, starting to bother him. “Heh. It might as well be. They are inferior to us. They have no place in our hearts. They are weak and expendable. Dispensable. To care about the one you feed on should be considered a crime. It’s utterly pointless. It makes you weak and vulnerable to open your heart to someone such as a human.”

Shuu’s frown deepened slightly. “Says you, who never cared about anyone or anything.”

Reiji’s smirk faded, a harshness entering his tone. “I cared about my duty. Unlike you. I should have been the one born first. It is I who is worthy of the throne, not you.”

“Hm. That’s fine by me. Take the throne if you want. I don’t care. I don’t want to be the one facing or replacing our devil of a father who won’t die.” His eyes slid closed once more. 

“Hmph. Of course not. Slothful and cowardly as always.”

“Hm,” was all Shuu said in response. 

Reiji stared silently at Shuu for several seconds. He then let out a loud exasperated sigh. Reiji had lost his motivation to continue cleaning. He had hoped to hit a nerve with Shuu, but it was Shuu who had gotten on _his_  nerves. 

Of course, he couldn’t leave a task unfinished. At the very least he would continue vacuuming the carpet. He turned the vacuum cleaner back on and quickly finished vacuuming whatever part of the carpet Shuu’s useless body _didn't_ cover.

The lazy blond reached a hand up to the MP3 player on his neck. He raised the volume of his music, then laid his hand on his chest, patiently waiting for Reiji to leave so he could fall back asleep. 

When Reiji had finished vacuuming what he could, he stopped and stared at Shuu’s motionless body. Getting an idea, he wedged a foot underneath the elder Sakamaki, and forcibly rolled him onto his front side, then quickly vacuumed the spot where he’d been laying. He then turned off the vacuum cleaner and moved it back over to the outlet to unplug it and wrap up the cord. 

“Thanks for rolling me over, by the way,” Shuu mumbled from his new position. He’d moved his hands from under his torso to under his head. “I was getting tired of being on my back.”

Reiji scoffed and quickly rushed out of the room, intending to avoid Shuu for the rest of the night until dinner. 

Shuu smirked for a brief moment, then frowned and let out a quiet sigh as he rested his forehead on his crossed arms. “If only he wasn’t so bitter and uptight. Perhaps the two of us might actually get along.” He said this not knowing whether Reiji really was out of earshot. Whether he heard it or not was of no matter; Shuu had a feeling that Reiji would never change his attitude until he sat on the throne, and/or Shuu was dead. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Feedback and criticism are always appreciated.


End file.
